An adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight‘s Children has been announced this week, as well as a host of other European co-productions including Le Sens De Nos Peines, What Use Is A Bear? (¿Para Qué Sirve Un Oso?) and Trap for Cindere

Berlin’s Hungarian Institute (Collegium Hungaricum Berlin) is to host a new pitching platform, Pitch Stop, for producers from Central Europe as part of its “Cinema Total” initiative during the forthcoming Berlin Film Festival.

The Academy has announced the documentary hopefuls for awards consideration, with Charles Ferguson’s financial crisis investigation Inside Job, Shlomi Eldar’s human drama Precious Life and Davis Guggenheim’s education jeremiad Waiting For Superman (pictured) all in the mix.

After yesterday’s announcement that the BFI would be taking on a number of key activities formerly overseen by the Film Council, Screen’s Wendy Mitchell spoke to BFI Director Amanda Nevill about how the BFI would have to change moving forward.

The Los Angeles-based sales and financing company has closed a slew of territories at AFM on its slate including the documentary Precious Life that last week became one of 15 titles to make it on to the Academy’s shortlist.

Chinese film distributor Bona Film Group has filed to list its shares on the NASDAQ stock market in New York, aiming to raise $80m in an initial public offering. It will be the first Chinese film company to be listed in the US.

Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures, which operates the Celestial Movies channel, has signed an output deal with sales agent Distribution Workshop for first-run pay-TV rights of its upcoming slate of Chinese movies.

Deals closed at AFM for Canadian rights to Jon Hewitt’s X, Fernando Barreda Luna’s Atrocious and The Orozco Brothers’ Greetings To The Devil. All three films are targeting festival premieres in early 2011.

The number of deals at last year’s American Film Market heralded a thaw in the independent sales sector. Jeremy Kay assesses how the sales arena is looking ahead of this year’s AFM (Nov 3-10) while Screen writers profile a selection of English-language market debuts heading to Santa Monica

India has historically not been an active co-producer, but some European producers are finding ways to work with local talent. On the eve of the Film Bazaar co-production forum (Nov 23-26), Liz Shackleton explores the realities of co-producing international features in India

Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows dominated the UK box office in its second week, taking $12.9m (£8.3m) from 581 screens at a $22,459 (£14,363) average and $51.7m (£33.3m) running total.

Another fine weekend for Universal’s popular animation saw it trump the double horror threat of Paranormal Activity 2 and Saw 3D and boost its running total to $235.4m. Lionsgate reported a preliminary $11.5m haul for Saw 3D from 22 territories

Artists from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories and Saudi Arabia participated in the recent sixth annual Rawi Screenwriters Lab run by the Royal Film Commission in consultation with Sundance Institute.

Are movie stars losing their power in the film business? At the AFM as well as in the executive offices of the studios, the appetite is for high concepts and visionary film-makers over pricey star vehicles.

According to chief executive Pauline Burt, 2009/2010 has been the agency’s “most productive year to date.”; The agency is now making the case to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to protect its funding going forward.

Film body The Industry Trust for IP Awareness has partnered with the charity Childnet International to fund the free guide ‘Music, Films and the Internet,’ which aims to highlight the implications of children downloading illegal entertainment.

Hollywood producers Don Murphy, Roy Lee (pictured) and Jason Hoffs gave advice on bridging the gap between the US and Japanese content industries at a seminar about adapting Japanese IP on Wednesday (November 3).The three producers all focus on turning Japanese and Asian manga, anime and other properties into Hollywood films. Lee’s Vertigo produced The Ring remake and is developing remakes such as Old Boy with Mandate Pictures. Murphy is a producer on the Transformers

Despicable Me, the first production from Chris Meledandri’s Universal-owned Illumination Entertainment, heralds the arrival of a new star player in CG-animation. Mike Goodridge talks to Meledandri about his production model and to Universal Pictures International chief David Kosse about the film’s stellar global performance

IM Global enters AFM this week with arguably the biggest English language project in the market after it emerged today [Nov 1] that BBC Earth and Reliance Big Entertainment are partnering on Walking With Dinosaurs 3D and two other films.

Image Entertainment has closed a deal with Exclusive Media Group for US rights to the Hammer Films horror thriller The Resident starring Hilary Swank.Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Christopher Lee and Lee Pace also star in the story about a young doctor who moves into a new Brooklyn apartment and begins to believe someone is watching her.Antti Jokinen directed the film and Image plans a spring 2011 release. Exclusive Films International is handling foreign salesThe Hammer

India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has unveiled the 18 projects that will take part in this year’s Film Bazaar co-production market, including seven projects from other South Asian nations.

The Italian box office is up year-on-year with admissions registering a 15.9% increase and $127m (€94.5m) box office rising 23.3% year on year with 2009. The figures were released in Rome today during the annual exhibitors convention and cover January 1- November 21.

If all that has taken place between Lionsgate and Carl Icahn were made into a film, this would be the nerve-shredding finale. After nearly two years of broadsides, intrigue and bitter reprisals, the corporate foes have set the annual shareholders meeting for December 14.

The Locarno Film Festival has announced that next year’s Open Doors co-production lab will focus on India. The announcement was made by Locarno artistic director Olivier Pere and Nadia Dresti, head of the festivals’ industry office, on the second day of Film Bazaar in Goa.

Jack Goes Boating, A Quiet Life (Una Vita Tranquila) and Animal Kingdom are among 15 titles in competition at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival (Dec 3 – 10).The competition slate includes ten feature debuts and three sophomore productions, representing 15 different nationalities.It has already been reported that US romantic comedy Henry’s Crime will open this

Relativity Media is betting Michael Drosnin’s bestselling Bible Code series will make a strong tentpole release and has acquired rights to the books The Bible Code, Bible Code II: The Countdown and Bible Code III: Saving The World.

British producer Richard Holmes’s latest project is a war drama based on the novel by Owen Sheers and directed by first time feature film-maker Amit Gupta. The film stars Michael Sheen and Andrea Risborough and is currently shooting in Wales and Herefordshire, UK.

Exposure at the Orange British Academy Film Awards can bring real benefits at the UK box office for films released at the right time. Andreas Wiseman explores the effectiveness of the awards as a launchpad and looks at how the Baftas (Feb 13, 2011) are shaping up in a strong year for British film.

Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona’s first English-language drama The Impossible is hotly anticipated thanks to its A-list stars, Ewan Mcgregor and Naomi Watts and the success of his debut feature The Orphanage.

Fox International’s runaway train thriller launched day-and-date with North America in 39 territories and grossed $19.3m from 4,137 screens, the distributor confirmed on Monday [15]. It will enjoy a brief reign given that Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 arrives next week.

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